I’m taking J. Money’s 30-day “No Spend” challenge

By Adam
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Over at Untemplater.com, J. Money issued a challenge to not spend any money outside of the necessary (e.g. groceries and utilities) for 30 days. Well, I’m taking him up on it.

Last year, my wife and I gave up TV and movies for 30 days. The result – we sold our TV afterwards and have loved being TV-free ever since.

So I’m anxious/curious to see what habits and mindsets change for us. This experiment could be a real paradigm shifter for us.

The Dates

We will begin on March 31st at midnight and end on April 30th at midnight.

The Guidelines

The following expenses are acceptable: mortgage, HOA, utilities, cell phone bill, groceries (see Guideline #2), auto and home insurance, and gas.
We have a $500 a month grocery allowance. Some of that $500 is on non-essential expenses. So, we are changing that budget to $450 for the month of April.
Exceptions: A birthday gift for my father and tickets to the Man Expo (I’m just not missing that)

I will report back weekly in a post about how well we are doing and how we are overcoming temptations, which I know there will be many. Heck, I added three books to my Amazon wishlist today.

So have you ever tried living off the bare minimum? Any advice? Let me know in the comments

Tags: budget, overspending, saving money | Filed under Cash Management, Featured

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LuluGal

Yes we did this as a No Spend Month and the results were quite positive. The first time I thought I was going to crave spending on items…but it really helped to clean out the pantry and use that food instead of letting it go to waste.
http://www.rabbitfunds.com/ Adam Williams

As my wife and I get ready for our No Spend month, we find ourselves thinking, “Oh no, we should buy that right now because we won't be able to in a few days.” Though I'm betting that the cravings will go away after about a week or so (that's how it was with the TV). Thanks!